SDBN BUZZ

Eric Topol: Will AI Improve or Erode the Doctor Patient Relationship?

Artificial intelligence is already making its way into healthcare and allowing for improvements patient care. The possibilities go way beyond what you may have imagined.

In this episode, Dr Eric Topol, Executive Vice Rresident at Scripps Research and the founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute, describes what some of those advances might look like for both the doctor and the patient.

He thinks there is potential for automated note taking, for example, to give back the gift of time spent with each patient in office visits, something that has decreased significantly since he was in med school.

He is likewise concerned that the savings might be used otherwise (more "productivity") which would further erode the doctor-patient relationship. Face to face time is important for better outcomes.

Listen to this episode to find out what relative value units are and why this may be the last chance for doctors to influence the direction of their profession.

Dr Topol is the author of Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again

The episode is sponsored by Cambridge Healthtech Institute, presenters of the 27th International Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference. 

The episode is sponsored by Cambridge Healthtech Institute, presenters of the 27th International Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference.

Three Essentials to Advance Your Life Science Career - And Advice for Employers Too

Robin Toft is the Chairman and Founder of The Toft Group, an executive search firm and author of the book: We Can: The Executive Woman's Guide to Career Advancement.

In this episode she shares three things you must have to advance your career Confidence, Competence and Connections) and how to develop/deploy them. 

This episode is packed with good advice. Here are some highlights.

You are the CEO of you. You should spend 75% of your time creating excellent value for your company. The other 25% should be spent planning how you can add more. Every CEO is thinking ahead and you should to. Companies value people who can think ahead strategically.

Your resume should be nothing but a series of value creation events. For every job you had, why did you take it and what value did you create for your employer?

Relationships make the world go round. Talk to people ahead of you in their careers to find out what it takes to get where they are. And don't forget to develop the people behind you! You can't be promoted unless there is someone who can step into your role. Making yourself irreplaceable in your current job means you will never be moved out of that job.

If you are an employer, realize we are in a talent crisis caused by over-investment in our industry. There just aren't enough people to do all the jobs. This means you must:

• Be flexible about where and when people work
• Trust your employees
• Embrace diversity

Robin will be moderating a panel at the Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference in San Francisco on March 4 at 7am. This episode is kindly sponsored by Cambridge Healthtech, organizers of the conference.

 

Funding Sources By Stages for Biotech Startups

In this episode, we explore where funding typically comes from at different stages in the evolution of a biotech company, along with some relatively new sources of funding that you may not have been aware of.

Rhyne Brown joined me to explain those sources, what those investors are thinking and what they might hope to get out of it, from friends and family through venture capital.

He also explained the existence of Registered Investment Advisors who bring together businesses that need capital with a network of people looking to invest in specific industries.

This episode is not intended as investment advice.  The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the producers of the SDBN Buzz podcast.

Paul Mola - DNA Sequencing via Molecular Electronics

Paul Mola is the Founder and CEO of Roswell Biotechnologies. They are working toward the goal of the $100 dollar genome via molecular electronics.  In a nutshell, they incorporate DNA polymerase into a circuit and measure the change in current within the circuit (through the polymerase!) as nucleotides move into the active site.

In this episode he describes the journey to get to the $100 genome goal with respect to chip technology and chemistry along with the possibilities for single cell sequencing on a larger scale.

Beyond that, we discuss what he calls the DNA economy. This includes everything from what might eventually be the $10 or $1 genome that will allow us to sequence everything to using DNA as a storage medium. I used to think that was a crazy idea, but once he explained the advantages to me, it made a lot of sense.

This episode is sponsored by Endpoint Communications.  They offer customized services for media strategy, thought leadership, content and editorial development - without the hassle of big agency contracts - to help you achieve your business goals faster. To request a free 30-minute consultation, visit endpointcommunications.net and fill out the form at the bottom of the page.

 

Sheila Gujrathi - Establishing a Corporate Culture

Sheila Gujrathi is the CEO of Gossamer Bio. She feels strongly about the importance of a thriving corporate culture to the success of an organization.

In this interview, she explained to me the values that are the foundation of the Gossamer Bio culture and how they work to maintain that culture beginning with recruiting, executive modeling, and continuously evaluation through offsites and coaching.

I view it as a garden that you just have to cut, keep tending to, to make sure that it's going to continue to evolve... You just have to have that care and attention to this garden and to make sure that, again, that it is thriving and vibrant and resilient. And you don't have unwanted plants that come in.

They will turn away good candidates who are good technically but may not be a good fit culturally. She explains in detail what they look for in a candidate. Humility and an open mind are critical because the business of science is full of surprises.

Sheila started her career as a physician. She described her path to becoming a CEO, how that influenced her views on culture and what has been the biggest challenge since becoming a CEO. 

 

Contact Gossamer Bio

 

Illumina is Growing an Audience with its Genomics Podcast

Paul Bromann is a Senior Manager of Scientific Affairs at Illumina. He also hosts the Illumina Genomics podcast.

In this episode he explains why Illumina started a podcast and what the goals are. Because he keeps the conversations high level and avoids jargon, he has built an audience far beyond those who use or might use Illumina's products or services.

The advantage of a podcast he notes is that because the budget requirement is small, it's possible to do more stories than you could with a video series. And that keeps the content fresh.

For small companies with limited budgets, Paul thinks a podcast is a great way to find your audience.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn.

This episode is sponsored by the Sensors Global Summit. It takes place December 10-12 in San Diego. Save 10% with the promo code SGS10 when you register at www.sensorsglobalsummit.com.

 

San Diego Angel Conference

The San Diego Angel Conference takes place March 28, 2020. At this conference at least one company will be selected as the winner of a pitch contest to receive angel funding from a fund capped at $1,000,000.

 

The process begins in December with applications due by December 18, 2019. Companies will move through several rounds (like an NCAA tournament bracket) where a winner will be chosen from the final six on March 28.

 

This episode explains the process, where the money comes from, the requirements to be an angel investor, the successes of last years participants and what will be different this year- including more money.

 

Learn more at: TheSDangels.com

 

  

 

Anne Marbarger - Padres Pedal the Cause

Anne Marbarger is the Executive Director of Padres Pedal the Cause. She joined me to talk about this organization that has raised just over ten million dollars in the last six years to fund research at four local cancer centers - The Moores Cancer Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys, The Salk Institute and Rady's Childrens Hospital.

Each of the 53 grants they have funded includes a clinician on one side and a basic researcher on another to encourage collaboration among the four organizations. They have also funded some clinical trials. The intent is to fund high risk, high reward investigations that can then be further funded by larger granting agencies.

The funds are raised through a one-day cycling, walking or spinning event that ends up on the field in Petco Park. You can participate as an individual or as a member of a corporate team.

Listen to this episode to hear inspiring stories of people impacted by the event and learn how you and your company can participate.

https://www.gopedal.org/

We are grateful for our sponsor:  Precision Medicine Leaders' Summit. It takes place Oct 10-11 in Torrey Pines. Use the code SAVE20 to save 20% on your ticket.

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Does the Gut Microbiome Affect the Response to Immuno-Therapy?

The bacteria in your gut play a big role in your health. And maybe more than you imagined. So much so that Stephanie Culler wants you to send her your poop. She is the CEO of Persephone Biome and she joined me to explain why. It turns out, immune checkpoint inhibitors can work better or worse depending on the bacteria living in our intestines. 

Coming up with an approved therapeutic or a companion diagnostic will require more data, hence the need for stool samples from citizen scientists.

I learned a lot in this episode:

• How the microbiome is important in cancer therapy
• Why she is grateful for the poop emoji
• The challenge of getting people to donate and
• How an inspiration from her fashion designer mother helped overcome that

Persephone Biome

 

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What Can Diversity and Inclusion Do for Your Business?

Diverse teams have been shown to be more innovative. But diversity alone is not sufficient. Team members need to feel included in whatever task is at hand. Otherwise, employee engagement suffers.

Denise Pirrotti Hummel is the CEO of Lead Inclusively. She joined us on this podcast to talk about the benefits of diversity and inclusion, the difference between the two and ways to bring those "next practices" into your company culture through changes in leadership behaviors.

Even before you get to innovation, an inclusive culture has an impact on your ability to attract and retain top talent.

We also talked about:

• Challenges for underrepresented groups
• The 3 Rs at the intersection of inclusion and innovation
• Nudge messaging to reinforce inclusive leadership behaviors

 

Learn more about the business impacts.

Contact:  info "at" leadinclusively.com   

Denise has been endorsed by Marshall Goldsmith as the "world leader in Diversity & Inclusion" because of her emphasis on next practices in D&I and her ability to leverage AI to scale these initiatives with her enterprise clients. She is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lead Inclusively, Inc., a firm that helps enterprise clients to use diversity and inclusion initiatives as an accelerator for innovation and business performance.